We study the observed correlations between the duration and luminosity of the early afterglow plateau and the isotropic gamma-ray energy release during the prompt phase. We discuss these correlations in the context of two scenarios for the origin of the plateaus. In the first one the afterglow is made by the forward shock and the plateau results from variations of the microphysics parameters while in the second one the early afterglow is made by a long-lived reverse shock propagating in a low Lorentz factor tail of the ejecta.
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